This newsletter highlights a number of faculty and trainee awards that have happened this fall. Several of these recognitions have a connection to the American College of Physicians (ACP) at the state, national and international level. The ACP has 154,000 members including international members and is the largest medical-specialty society in the world. It is very exciting that Dr. Scott Neumeister of the General Internal Medicine division has been selected for the national ACP Herbert S. Waxman Award for Outstanding Medical Student Educator. Equally impressive is that Dr. Tom Tape, Division Chief for General Internal Medicine, was elected into the Royal College of Physicians in London this fall and his leadership roles at the ACP set the stage for his selection into the Royal College. Additionally, the Nebraska chapter of the ACP held its annual meeting in October and a number of our colleagues and our residents were instrumental in organizing the meeting as well as honored by awards there. The ACP provides many educational and clinical resources and is an organized, strong voice for our patients as well as physicians. If you are not a member, I encourage you to consider joining this important organization.
Our internal medicine residency council is fostering teamwork and interprofessionalism with the creation of "TOAST" (Toasting Outstanding Acts of Superb Teamwork) Award. See the story to learn more including which staff member is the inaugural winner of the award.
We appreciate the many talents of investigators in the department. Learn more about Dr. Lawler (Infectious Disease division) and his role in a grant on biopreparedness. One of our newest faculty, Dr. Jophlin in GI, won the top prize in the Superstar Competition during the Great Plains IDeA-CTR Annual Scientific Meeting held in October for her concept around a new diagnostic test for non-alcoholic fatty liver diseases. Drs. Vijaya Bhatt and Bryant England are current Great Plains IDeA-CTR scholar awardees. If you don’t know much about the Great Plains IDeA-CTR program, see their website (https://gpctr.unmc.edu/) or talk to Dr. Ted Mikuls, our Vice Chair of Research.
A special thank you to Maria Daniels who has been creating our newsletters. She will be leaving us in December and we appreciate her many talents. We wish her all the best! If you have news items for future newsletters, just send them to me until we have Maria’s replacement in place.
The holiday season is upon us with many special activities representing a variety of traditions to bring color to our lives. We all know that sometimes those many activities also bring added stress. May we each find a way to celebrate what is truly most meaningful to us. I am grateful for all that each of you brings to the life of our department.
From the Chair
